Pulitzer Prize Biography Winner
Jackson Pollock: An American Saga
by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith
Summary
Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith chart the life of Jackson Pollock, the abstract expressionist whose drip paintings transformed American art. The biography traces his troubled childhood, his struggle with alcoholism, his marriage to painter Lee Krasner, and his death in a car crash at forty four. Built from hundreds of interviews, it presents both the breakthrough artist and the self destructive man behind the canvases.
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Historical Context & Significance
The book later served as a basis for the 2000 film Pollock, in which Ed Harris directed and starred as the painter.